Dallas Loses Tough Defensive Battle In Pittsburgh, 13-20

The Cowboys played a terrific defensive game, until a little over seven minutes into the fourth quarter Sunday in Pittsburgh, while four Romo turnovers gave the Steelers enough points to win at home, 13-20.

Romo’s first two interceptions and fumble in the first half only cost the team 3 points as the half ended in a 3-3 tie. Neither team could manage much offense in the first half as each had under 100-yards of total offense in two quarters. Roethlisberger was under extreme pressure most of the afternoon and seemed to have trouble with the windy, cold conditions as well with one interception and a fumble of his own.

To begin the third quarter, Dallas appeared to get the offense going and rookie RB Tashard Choice made some big plays leading to 10 unanswered Cowboy points in the quarter. Terrell Owens made a great catch in the back of the endzone after a lengthy Romo scramble to get the game’s first touchdown and a 10-3 lead to Dallas. Choice made some good runs and turned a screen pass into a 50-yard gain down to the Steeler’s ten-yard line, but they would only get a field goal out of the drive for a 13-3 lead at that point.

The defense not only sacked Roethlisberger five times, but stopped them on a critical fourth-and-goal play early in the fourth quarter. But the offense couldn’t get a first down on two successive drives giving the ball back to Pittsburgh with about 7:34 minutes left in the contest. Pittsburgh would then drive the ball, after a short punt into the wind and a good return by Santonio Holmes to the Dallas 25-yard line, and score the game-tying touchdown with just 2:04 remainining. Romo would then throw the third, and possibly worst interception of his career to DeShea Townsend who promptly ran the ball back 27-yards and in for the winning touchdown. Dallas would get the ball back again with less than a minute to go to try to score and tie the game, but Romo’s fourth down pass went incomplete effectively ending the game with just :55 seconds until the end.

Some good and bad things that stick out about this game to me were the play of Tashard Choice in place of Marion Barber and the tough play of the Dallas defensive front. That would be the good, the bad would obviously be the poor play in bad weather by Tony Romo, the senseless defensive penalties and bad clock management by the coaching staff. You can’t afford to get “12-men on the field” penalties and have 2 timeouts remaining at the end of the game!

Now the loss doesn’t summarily or numerically end the Cowboys’ playoff hopes, but doesn’t do much to help them either. At 8-5, they are now tied with at least two other NFC teams and could see themselves missing out on the wild card playoff spot if they lose another game. With one of the toughest schedules for the month left to go, it may this is the game that ends their season. As I said, there is a little hope so that’s what us fans will have to cling to as the rest of December plays out!

no leadership. no character. no professionalism. they will continue to fail without an honorable owner, a competent coach, a quarterback with leadership capability and teammates with character and non-egotistical behavior.